Tag: african fashion

Hello there.. Have you been well? Do you ever have those days where nothing makes sense and you question everything around you and even yourself. Your steps feel heavy like you’re wading through swamp water. Another day another brown life taken too soon and his name made into a trending hashtag. It’s exhausting. I might have been born in Africa but living in America and having brothers the same age as Jordan Edwards, I have no delusions that they could very well be in the same situation. Our brown and black skintones are a death sentence in America and the fear can be overwhelming. But every time I want to give up and bury my head in the sand as a form of survival, these words flood my mind:

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Maya Angelou’s powerful words of defiance and resilience are like a soothing balm on a fresh burn. Reminding us to keep hope alive because that’s the only thing that matters. So I keep rising, like my grandparents and ancestors before them, I keep rising with the hope to live and thrive and honor all that I am. Joy in a world that is hell bent on holding you down is a revolutionary act so I choose joy and hope every chance I get. If you are a brown or black skinned king or queen choosing joy and hope over fear every morning, I salute you! To those who have been lost to senseless violence I honor you. The revolution lives on.